Okay, there were probably atheists in Troy at some point, but no one of Hector's standing would have ever disparaged the gods in public - that was a good way to become a pariah at best and very dead at worst.

Have these people even read the Iliad? The greek gods weren't exactly a forgiving lot!

It was also a great way to demoralize the troops, to see leaders committing blasphemy. People going into battle like feeling that they have any protection, supernatural or otherwise, that be obtained.

+1 on Troy and Kingdom of Heaven. I remember at the time the latter came out, one medieval historian quipped that you'd get a more accurate picture of the Middle Ages watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

Well that's because Terry Jones is a quite good medieval historian. It took me longer than I like to admit , to realise that the Terry Jones my lecturer was talking about all those times in my Chaucer class was the Terry Jones.

Logged

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”- Douglas Adams

"I remember at the time the latter came out, one medieval historian quipped that you'd get a more accurate picture of the Middle Ages watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail!"

I don't get it. Other than the coconuts and Tim allowing Sir Robin to continue living after he opened his mouth, what was inaccurate about that epic?

Virg

hahahahaha

King Arthur: I am your king.Peasant: Well, I didn't vote for you.King Arthur: You don't vote for kings.Peasant: Well, how'd you become king, then?King Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king.Peasant: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.Arthur: Be quiet!Peasant: You can't expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!Arthur: Shut up! Will you shut up?!Peasant: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system!Arthur: Shut up!Dennis: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!Arthur: Bloody Peasant!

So historically accurate

Logged

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." — Douglas Adams

+1 on Troy and Kingdom of Heaven. I remember at the time the latter came out, one medieval historian quipped that you'd get a more accurate picture of the Middle Ages watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

Well that's because Terry Jones is a quite good medieval historian. It took me longer than I like to admit , to realise that the Terry Jones my lecturer was talking about all those times in my Chaucer class was the Terry Jones.

"I remember at the time the latter came out, one medieval historian quipped that you'd get a more accurate picture of the Middle Ages watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail!"

I don't get it. Other than the coconuts and Tim allowing Sir Robin to continue living after he opened his mouth, what was inaccurate about that epic?

Virg

hahahahaha

King Arthur: I am your king.Peasant: Well, I didn't vote for you.King Arthur: You don't vote for kings.Peasant: Well, how'd you become king, then?King Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king.Peasant: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.Arthur: Be quiet!Peasant: You can't expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!Arthur: Shut up! Will you shut up?!Peasant: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system!Arthur: Shut up!Dennis: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!Arthur: Bloody Peasant!

So historically accurate

That right there is one of my favorite parts.

Logged

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

How convenient that 'G.I. Joe. Rise of the Cobra' is offered on TV tonight. We must at least take a look at it.

LOL?? Did you see it? Did you think that you could have replaced Channing Tatum and Sienna Miller with cardboard cutouts and tape recorders and nobody would have noticed?

Color of Night -- Bruce Willis' first and last foray into soft-core p0rn; it's hard to believe that Willis was in Pulp Fiction, which was released the same year. Color of Night is like a Skinemax movie with actual actors in it. The supporting cast consisting of Lance Henriksen, Brad Dourif, Lesley Ann Warren, Kevin J. O'Connor, Scott Bakula, and Ruben Blades are completely wasted. There's a "shocking" plot twist that any idiot can see coming from a mile away. As of 2013 it remains the first and only movie to win the Razzie for Worst Film and nothing else.

Hannibal and Hannibal Rising--proof that you can't make good movies from bad novels.

All The King's Men (2006)--a painfully boring movie and huge box office flop with Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Anthony Hopkins tragically miscast as good ole Louisiana folk. Was there a shortage of Americans during the casting? The only positive thing to come out this movie was that it got the ball rolling on Jackie Earle Haley's comeback.

Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009)--Lets see...apparently bullying turns you into a 7-foot-tall inhuman killing machine. Laurie is turned into such a loud, whiny, screechy, obnoxious brat that I hoped Michael Myers would disembowel her so she'd shut up. Dr. Loomis is turned into an arrogant scumbag. Everyone, and I mean everyone, drops the f-bomb three times in every.single.sentence. And Rob Zombie writes teenage girls like he's never met a teenage girl in his life.

I'm going to second the PP who suggested Prometheus. It was such a shame, because it could have been a really good film.

I have to take issue with the PP who suggested Kingdom of Heaven, though! I agree that it would have been very unlikely for anyone to make the exact speech that Bloom's character does, but the concept of peaceful coexistence wasn't unheard of.

For instance, the 13th-century German author Wolfram von Eschenbach is known for his sympathetic portrayal of the Saracens in his works, and for his argument that they are 'God's handiwork' just like the Christians. Wolfram himself was a knight who had almost certainly been on Crusade. I admit that Wolfram was in the minority, but these views certainly did exist.

If anything, I would say that the greater inaccuracy in the film was the portrayal of the Templars as evil thugs, when in fact they were one of the more enlightened factions in the Crusades (largely because they had travelled widely and had more knowledge of the different cultures they were encountering).

Sorry - this turned into a bit of a lecture!

I'll grant that there were people who did somewhat believe in co - existence, but I seriously doubt that a random blacksmith from France would have that opinion. Then again, believing that a milquetoast like Orlando Bloom could become a knight and lead the attack against Saladin stretched my suspension of disbelief about as far as it was willing to go. Yeah, the character's father is played by Liam Neeson, but as he dies before ever actually being able to teach his son how to fight (beyond one practice lesson in the woods), the biological connection doesn't work nearly as well as the moviemakers probably thought it did.

Logged

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends" - Harry Potter

I used to work in a video store. The owner was an eccentric Englishman with a Benny Hill sense of humour and a huge collection of odd films. We had a lot of bad movies. Bad in ways that would surprise the average person, but I've read some of them here so maybe not all of you.

The worst movie I ever saw in the theatre was Highlander 2. It was opening night, the place was SRO and you could tell everyone was excited.

And when the movie ended we sat there in stunned silence for about 10-15 seconds, which felt like forever. Then someone yelled, "That Sucked!" and we all burst into applause. I hope they didn't get the wrong idea.

For me it's Panic Room and Ghost Ship. I've never been a huge Kristen Stewart fan because she seems to have only 1 expression. Ghost Ship was just bad, bad, bad. Bad plot, bad script, bad acting. I was dating my now dh at the time and he fell asleep it was so awful. Ghost Ship is how we guage the awfulness of a movie now.